The weather has caused numerous extra hours of work for the local power districts. Yesterday the electricity went off in Wausa and Bloomfield around 1 PM and the crews from the area were out to resolve the issue. The problem starts when ice loads on the power lines and falls off. When the lines touch they burn through and that causes the outage. This was the case on the transmission line north of Bloomfield, which feeds the power to Wausa.
Cedar Knox Public Power reports that 80% of their meters were without power. Out of the 7000 meters serviced by them estimates are 2000 to 3000 homes were without power. Although power was restored to Bloomfield and Wausa in the afternoon, the Cedar-Knox PPD crew was out till 2:30 AM restoring power to other areas. Dan Leise, General Manager said, “weather usually is localized to one area, but with this weather our whole district has had issues”.
Today the crews are patrolling the lines and knocking ice from them with long poles to reduce any further issues. Customers should not attempt to knock ice from power lines. Not only are the crews patrolling their district but also helping neighboring power districts who still are having power issues. In addition to patrolling Cedar-Knox PPD is attempting to run a second transmission line from south of Wausa to help restore power quicker if something happens again. Leise also commented, “There is no doubt that the electricity will blink on and off during this weather event, but our crews are out to restore power quickly for our customers”.
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